Ed Stetzer in Europe

Our friend Ed Stetzer is in Krakow, Poland, to speak with church planters there about global trends and planting Kingdom churches. Ed’s gone guerrilla movie making this time, posting interviews and vlogging. Please go check it out.

Next week, Ed will be visiting Rome and Marseilles in advance of next spring’s trip with Darrin Patrick ( May 22 to June 1, 2009). A couple of posts ago, Ed wrote about the Upstream Collective, and the Jet Set Tour we’re planning together for the Spring. Please follow this site for more information. Remember that plans for a trip to Europe are a little more involved than a weekend conference- if you want to participate, please plan ahead!

Idea: Subscribe to Foreign Media

A good way to help your church get a feel for a people group and it’s culture is to subscribe to a foreign newspaper. You may not realize this, but many newspapers from around the world are also printed here in the United States for the immigrant market (often in English). Since everything is published online, international editions, as they’re called, arrive on subscribers’ doorsteps while they’re still in news racks in their country of origin.

Of course you can subscribe to many newspapers’ online editions and receive daily copies via email or RSS feed. But there’s something about a print edition lying around that encourages your church members to read it. Also, a physical copy may include advertisements and news that is specific to the home region. These are the things that give you a peek into the culture.

You might leave copies of Thailand’s Bangkok Post lying around your office. Asia Weekly would be great for people to peruse near the coffee bar. You could lead your people to pray specifically though The Portugal News as part of your missions emphasis.

Finding these English-language print edition newspapers is as easy as a Google search. A great place to start is onlinenewspapers.com or newspaperdirect’s list of printed newspapers from around the world. You may find international newspapers at a news stand in a more diverse neighborhood or at the airport.

If you already feel led to get involved in ministry to a specific region or people group, reading their newspaper will help you understand their worldview. If you aren’t sure, praying through newspapers from around the world might help you decide where and how God might use your church to build His kingdom among the nations.

Near Cultures

The trouble with advocating for missions in “near” cultures (cultures that, at least at first glance look a lot like our home culture) is that it doesn’t seem as real. We’ve been programmed to think of missions as “suffering for Jesus” by going to share Christianity with people who really need it- poor, uneducated masses of people with strange customs, darker skin than ours, and a naive joie de vivre.

This “first-to-third-world” understanding of missions has radically affected our missiology and our self image; and neither for the better. Our modern missiology values perceived difficulty over perceived ease or comfort. Of course, we should be willing to go wherever God leads us. We also often fall into the “savior complex.” People don’t need us, they need Jesus.

This is why missions in Europe usually falls apart- churches don’t value it in the forst place, and if they finally do make an effort to get involved, they dont’ feel like they’re doing missions. Believe it or not, it can take a while for a missionary in Europe to understand just how different the French culture is from American culture. After all, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music, and eat the same fast food as we do. Lots of them speak English. They’re educated (often more than we are), wealthy (especially with the weakening dollar!), and proud. They look just like us!

That’s the challenge of missions to near cultures. How can we overcome these prejudices in order to be fully obedient to God’s leadership?

Why Europe?

Of all the places in the world, in the face of tremendous spiritual need, why would we focus on Europe? Aren’t France and Spain famous for their cathedrals? Wasn’t Germanic Europe the seat of Reformation thought?

The truth of the matter is this: neither church buildings nor history save. The spiritual climate of Europe is a dismal one- less than 2% of Europeans claim to have a relationship with God through a relationship with Jesus. In most of Europe, that percentage is less than one percent. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the great need that brought us to Europe.

We might point to the unprecedented access to the hundreds of unreached people groups that are represented in Europe as a good reason for missions there. In every European country there is significant representation of “the nations.” Besides free access to these people, there is the added opportunity to meet the immense social and physical needs that accompany immigration. We thank God for the chance to befriend, assist, and influence unreached refugees and immigrants, but this isn’t our primary motivator either.

While we’re taking a look at the list of reasons to be on mission in Europe, let’s scratch “comfort,” “ease,” and “results” off that list as well.

No the reason for Europe is not that we picked it at all, but that God picked us for it. Our desire to see all the peoples of Europe come to faith has everything to do with obedience to what God has told us. We go because He compels us. He leads us with a vision of Spanish Cathedrals reclaimed as houses of worship. He motivates us with spiritual conversations with Germans over coffee. He guides us with supernatural insight into the global influence of the European worldview.

In the end, it all comes down to calling. We’re just some regular people on a quest to seek God and obey His direction. A big part of that is seeking out others who may be similarly called.

Nevermind all the other reasons for going- is God calling you to impact Europe with the gospel of Christ?

“It’s European!”

Purses for men. Smelly candles. Awful-tasting chewing gum. A bastard child of peanut butter and chocolate. Subtitled movies. Uncomfortable fiberboard furniture. Risque advertisements. Expensive dress-up loafers. No matter how odd, ugly, effeminate, debased or impractical a product may be, in the United States, the sales trump card is to claim that said object is “European.” For all its Francophobia, German stereotype and Spanish ignorance, it seems that Americans must have some sort of “fashion envy” when it comes to European style.

As we travel the country talking about missions in Europe, we’re often accused of advocating the post-Christian culture we describe in our presentations. Overlooking the fact that few of the people groups in Europe are living in God-honoring ways. Nevermind that cultures are broken human constructs that only serve to help us make sense of the world around us. As though we went to Europe, converted to “Europeanism,” and have now returned to evangelize unsuspecting Americans into going “Euro.” It’s all part of our evil plan.

Tracking the trends of influence and worldview, we believe that the European reality is the (near) future American reality. It’s as though our time in Europe were a trip into America’s cultural future. We’ve been there; we’ve seen what’s coming. And we have come to realize that you, church, are not ready for it.

So all of our talk about Europe and postmodernism and espresso drinks is not born of some deeply held belief in the promise of the European worldview. It’s to sound the alarm of pending changes, and to offer our help as you prepare to face the challenges of ministry in a culture that different from the one you grew up in.

Alan Hirsch

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Alan Hirsch (The Forgotten Ways, Forge Network, Shapevine). His mission (according to me) is to pull the American church (perhaps kicking and screaming) out of the modernism that limits us to traditional, religious, attractional expressions of our faith. If you don’t know Alan, be sure to pick up The Shaping of Things to Come ( written with Michael Frost,) and then move on to The Forgotten Ways.

Anyway, we really like Alan, and appreciate his voice in the conversation. Especially good is Alan’s participation in an ongoing discussion about the use and meaning of the word “missional.”

About Europe: Atlanta

Our meeting in Atlanta was hosted by David Putman, author of the new book, Breaking the Discipleship Code and one of the pastors of Mountain Lake Church outside Atlanta. If you want some wisdom from an honest and and forthright missional thinker who is well into the philosophical journey away from modernism, just spend a few minutes with David. If you can’t do that, read one of his books. Either way, check out his blog, and his church planter’s resource site Churchplanters.com.

The group from this meeting really picked up on the missiological shift that we’re advocating with the About Europe tour. Our message here is essentially self-defeating; if local churches really take a more active role in identifying, training, sending, and supporting missionaries, it will likely mean less direct support for professional missionaries. We’re okay with that because we believe that “the pros” could use a little motivation to move into a more serving and support role. We also try to keep more of a “Kingdom” mentality. Kingdom thinking means holding tightly to our purpose and identity in Christ and holding loosely to our jobs as paid clergy.

It’s encouraging to meet like-minded believers who are ready to embrace a more active role in obedience to the Great Commission. If you’re one of them, we’d love to hear from you.

About Europe: Philadelphia

Aaron Harvie is the kind of guy that people want to be around. That’s what drew an amazing ministry team together (Ezra, Gibson), and that’s why Riverside Community Church, the church he planted just north of Philadelphia nine years ago, is a model of cooperation, unity, and contagious faith. He invited fellow pastors and church planters to join us at Rob Burns’ Real Life Church, where we had some great dialogue about the similarities between the European and the American cultures.

Steak Sandwiches. Yum.

For pastors who are isolated and insulated by the American Christian sub-culture, postmodern thought is a theory to be studied or a force to be feared. But the guys in Philadelphia, (sorry, as an outsider, I can’t bring myself to call it “Philly”) postmodernism is a contextual realtiy. As we outlined the general European worldview, they related to the fatalism, relativism, and neo-moralism that both cultures have in common. What they’re doing in the northeast is very similar to what we do in Europe.

The apparent similarities, however, can be deceiving. In our presentation, we refer to some of the major blunders that well-intentioned American mission trippers have made during visits to Europe. Many groups go to Europe assuming that what “worked” in the U.S. will “work” in Europe. There’s nothing worse than inadvertently offending people to such an extent that you lose your voice before you’ve even said a word.

That’s where the Upstream Collective comes in. We don’t know all of the cultural ins and outs of every people group and every neighborhood, but we can help you learn how to study a culture. If we’ve learned anything about getting to know people of another culture, its the importance of keep our eyes and ears open while keeping our mouths tightly shut.

We had a great time as Aaron showed us around town. It’s obvious that he loves the city and is committed to investing in it. We happily played tourist as we visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. You kind of see all that stuff in a different light after being overseas for a few years. I’m thankful to be an American.

By the way, Real Life Church is a great case study in incarnational ministry. Check out what Ed Stetzer wrote about them back in February of 2007.

About Europe: San Antonio

Today’s meeting was with a large and diverse group of Texas pastors and leaders in the back room of a Chinese restaurant in north San Antonio.

Back room. Chinese. It seemed appropriate enough.

We had Hispanic leaders, young missional suburbanites, even a Messianic rabbi. They were interested to hear about the opportunities for ministry in Europe, and surprised at the many commonalities between ministry in the US and the work in post-Christian Europe.

Our hosts, Gracepoint Church, have really been great. They took a little risk by inviting their friends and partners to listen to us. We’re glad they did.

About Europe: Austin

We just finished a meeting at the Williamson Baptist Association. This was one of those groups that is already doing what we’re talking about. A couple years ago, they stopped all of their programs (those things they were doing on the churches’ behalf) and positioned themselves in a striclty support/service role. Want the Association to promote your Men’s Ministry? They don’t do that. Looking for someone to coordinate your mission trip? Don’t call WBA. They scaled everything back to support through training, networking, and helping church plants find money.

So they understand our desire to move the para-church structure out from between the church and her mission. This group of church planters and pastors would be an ideal network of sending churches. They can work together to seek God’s direction and develop a missions strategy that allows them to use their gifts, strengths, and interests.

Ministry experience in Europe is pretty valuable for an American church. The European socio-cultural context is a window into the coming/emerging (in many ways already here!) American worldview. Missional churches are uniquely suited for service in Europe. We can’t wait to see how God is going to use those who are willing to step out in obedience to God (and defiance of the legacy system) and lead the way for engagment at home and abroad.